Hi all,
this my 2nd month joining fullcontact MT club, but I am so worry because ppl keep telling me that fullcontact sport is very dangerous to the brain. And your brain cannot withstand the punishment even if you wear a headgear and gloves. That statement was also supported by a few doctors I met. There is one article discussing it, check this out:

http://www.brainerddispatch.com/stories/012600/nei_0126000013.shtml

what do you think guys, dou you have any personal experience? btw I am a postgraduate student and I think I NEED my brain, so should I give up MT and joining aikido or taichi(uh well) instead?

getting punched in the eye will later result in glacoma and incurable blindness. Went to a top eye specialist for a check up and found out that the pressure in my eye is at the borderline. He asked me if I ever got punched or hit in the eye and he said that's a recognized cause of glacoma.

Re: brain damage from contact, that's a no brainer (pardon the pun). Repeated trauma to the brain and concussions does accumulative damage.

So keep the head contact to a minimum unless you want to struggle to remember how to turn a doorknob when you're 60.

I am completely against young children doing full contact to the head. There is overwhelming evidence supporting what you've said re: protection and what Hiji said about accumulative damage. However, you're an adult and you've got the information you need to make an intelligent decision -- if you've been training for over a month you can assess how many shots you're taking and whether it's worth it to you.

Gloves allow your opponent to hit you harder and more times because the glove prevent his hands from breaking.

Headgear lessens acute trama and damage, ie getting cut, bruised, and knockouted but increases chances of long term damage by letting you stay in there and get hit more.

My solution is to wear proctective gear and lighten up on the contact. If your are doing MT for fun and health reasons, there is no reason to get pummeled with a level of contact your are not comfortable with. You can still train and hit bags and do light contact drills.

I personally favor sparring full contact to the body, and light-medium contact to the head. I'm cuurent out of a job and I can't go into interviews with a broken nose or a black eye.